CANDIDATES CRISSCROSS U.S. IN SEARCH FOR VOTES

Romney makes play for Pa.; Obama visits swing states

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. 
Two days from judgment by the voters, President Barack Obama raced through four battleground states on Sunday while Mitt Romney ventured into traditionally Democratic Pennsylvania, seeking a breakthrough in a close race.

Appearing before some of the largest crowds of the campaign, the rivals stressed their differences on the economy, health care and more while professing an eagerness to work across party lines and end gridlock in Washington.

Obama, his voice growing hoarse after four straight days of heavy campaigning, spoke briefly to a crowd at a Cincinnati basketball arena Sunday night.

“I intend to win Ohio. I intend to win the presidency,” said Obama, who also visited Colorado, Florida and New Hampshire. “But even after that, I’m going to need all of you involved to make sure we don’t let up.”

Romney flew to Pennsylvania for his first campaign foray of the general election. The state last voted for a Republican presidential candidate in 1988, and Obama’s aides insisted it was safe for the president. Yet the challenger and his allies began advertising heavily in the campaign’s final days, and public and private polls suggested the state was relatively close.

The theme from “Rocky” blared from the loudspeakers as he stepped to the podium. “The people of America understand we’re taking back the White House because we’re going to win Pennsylvania,” Romney told a large crowd that had been waiting for hours on a cold night.

Earlier, Romney launched a new television commercial, possibly his last of the campaign, as he appeared in Iowa, Ohio and Virginia as well as Pennsylvania. “He’s offering excuses. I’ve got a plan” to fix the economy. “I can’t wait for us to get started,” he said.

In Des Moines, Romney said he would meet regularly with “good men and women on both sides of the aisle” in Congress. Later, in Cleveland, he said of Obama, “Instead of bridging the divide, he’s made it wider.”

In Florida, the president said he wants to work across party lines, but quickly added there were limits to the sorts of compromises he would make.

“If the price of peace in Washington is cutting deals that will kick students off of financial aid, or get rid of funding for Planned Parenthood, or let insurance companies discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions, or eliminate health care for millions who are on Medicaid. ... I’m not willing to pay that price,” he said.

At the same time, polls show bipartisanship is popular, in the abstract, at least, which accounts for the emphasis the candidates are placing in the race’s final days on working across political aisles.

So intense was the campaigning that Vice President Joe Biden’s plane and the one carrying Romney were both on the tarmac in Cleveland at the same time in early afternoon. The two men did not see one another.

Biden’s assignment for the day was to rally voters across Ohio. “These guys are trying to play a con game here at the end,” he said of Romney and running mate Rep. Paul Ryan, whom he accused of posing as more moderate than they are.